The last Veddas - Sri Lanka

200_60_001.jpg	200_60_002.jpg	200_60_003.jpg	200_60_004.jpg	200_60_005.jpg
200_60_006.jpg	200_60_010.jpg	200_60_014.jpg	200_60_016.jpg	200_60_017.jpg
200_60_018.jpg	200_60_019.jpg	200_60_020.jpg	200_60_021.jpg	200_60_022.jpg
200_60_023.jpg	200_60_024.jpg	200_60_025.jpg	200_60_028.jpg	200_60_029.jpg
200_60_034.jpg	200_60_035.jpg	200_60_037.jpg	200_60_039.jpg	200_60_041.jpg
200_60_044.jpg	200_60_046.jpg	200_60_048.jpg	200_60_049.jpg	200_60_053.jpg
200_60_054.jpg	200_60_057.jpg	200_60_058.jpg	200_60_060.jpg

THE LAST VEDDAS

 In one of the most depopulated areas of Sri Lanka, near Mahijangana, live the Veddas, also called “Wanniyaletto”, the men of the jungle. These nomads, descendants of the Austro-Asiatic Aborigines, arrived here 35,000 years ago and are the first inhabitants of the Island of Ceylon. They are animists but also venerate Buddha. In far distant times they had been cannibals.
Today the Vedda population has dwindled down to about a hundred people, making their living with difficulty as hunter-gatherers. A generous donation of 350 hectares of hunting-ground has been made to them by the Sri Lankan government, but the Veddas have practically no game left on their territory. The jungle has been criss-crossed by tracks and roads, leaving little space for animals, an essential source of food to maintain their survival.
The Veddas are not longer self-sufficient, some of them had to settle down and learn to farm.
Guna Wardana is perhaps the very person to find a solution for his people. The only Vedda to have had a university education, he has now returned home after studying in Colombo and set up a school where Vedda children are taught a culture better adapted to life in the 21st century.